The Trinity Baptist Church sex scandal was a United States sex scandal that came to national attention in The scandal centered on the way that Trinity Baptist Church, an Independent Baptist church in Concord, New Hampshire , and its former pastor handled the rape and subsequent pregnancy of one of its members, an underage girl, by her employer.
The employer was another member of the congregation who hired the girl as a babysitter for his children. In , Tina Anderson, a year-old member of Trinity Baptist Church, was raped by church member and father Ernest Willis, whose children she babysat. Chuck Phelps was the senior pastor at the time. The people around Anderson told her not to talk about it, and the case remained unaddressed until Anderson received a call from the Concord police in February The blog founder Jocelyn Zichterman followed up with Barnhart and upon learning Anderson's identity and location she contacted the Concord police.
In June Brian Fuller, the pastor who followed Phelps, expressed deep regret about the way the church had handled the incident and disgust that Willis was allowed to remain a church member for seven years following the incident. Before trial, Willis pleaded guilty to one count of statutory rape but denied he forcibly raped Tina Anderson twice in She said it happened once while he was giving her driving lessons and again at her home weeks later.
Willis testified that the two had sex on only one occasion and it was consensual. The trial started in May Despite the media outcry, Phelps remained on Bob Jones University 's Board of Trustees until an online campaign finally led to his resignation in December In June , the congregation approved three amendments to the church constitution.
The first created a Security Team to provide security during public gatherings and to authorize criminal background checks for all volunteers in the children's ministry. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history.
